Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Lunch in Scottsdale

We've been trying to get to Scottsdale to do some exploring and have lunch at one of the Fox Restaurant Concepts' locations for weeks, but something else would come up every time we planned it. Monday, we finally got to do it! The kids had given us a gift certificate for Christmas and it took us some time to decide which of the Fox restaurants to try first. We finally settled on the Culinary Dropout!

Since it was Monday, the lunch traffic was light so we were seated outside under the archway in the photo above. The weather was perfect...isn't it always???

We began our lunch with their Soft Pretzels and Provolone Fondue which we both loved. Just look at those balls of pretzel perfection and that luscious cheese fondue!

I had the Cheap House Salad and the Grilled Cheese Sliders with tomato and bacon...yummm! Where in the world would I buy a cute little loaf of bread like that? I want it; I want it a lot!

Rich's meal was a different story. On the menu there is a section called Antipasti from which you can order individual items. From the Cheeses section, he ordered Prairie Breeze; a semi-hard, cheddar like sharp flavor chunk of cheese that our server told us is made on an Idaho farm from the milk of their twelve-cow dairy herd specifically for their restaurant...yeah it is that kinda place. From the Vegetables & Snacks section he ordered Crusty Bread & Good Olive Oil. All of that was delicious. Where it got interesting was his Meats selection which was Jamón Ibérico from Spain. This is acorn fed, free-range, black hoof pig which is one of the most prized meats in the world! Our server mentioned that a special imported Italian slicing machine is required to achieve these ultra-thin slices of meat.

However, no matter how special and rare and imported it is, Rich did not like that meat AT ALL! I did like it though, so I ate most of it...well yes, of course I shared my sliders with him. What made this certificate such a fabulous gift is that we love trying new restaurants and would not have known about these otherwise. And if you were to ask us...Yes, in a heartbeat, we would dine here again! Because all of their restaurants sound just as exciting as this one, we will try at least one more before we head back home. And, we often select something from the menu that we've never heard of before because that's the best part of new dining experiences.

This restaurant is located on the Waterfront in Scottsdale...seriously. Here is a shot of the water, which is the Arizona Canal.

We walked around this fountain on our way to the canal.

The landscaping was gorgeous!

And just so you know how perfectly our ensembles always coordinate with our surroundings...Rich's shirt was the exact same shade of blue as the tiles in the fountain.

Oh come on, you didn't think this whole post was going to be serious didya?

After exploring some of the area around Camelback Mountain, we went to Dylan's hockey game. Hockey has been on break for a while and the season ending tournament is in a couple of weeks. Wrestling is over for the season and this is the last week of school before their Spring break...where has the winter gone?